15 years ago

15 years ago a chap called Tim Berners-Lee created something that changed the world. He invented the World Wide Web. Without it many people's lives would be different, including myself. I have grown up alongside the growth of the home computer, and in my teen years the growth of the World Wide Web, and the Internet that it runs on. I knew at a very early age that I wanted to have a life with computers, from when I first made an old Texas Instruments computer a friend gave me count to 1 million (which took a good few hours back then!)

Today I use the internet and the web on a daily basis. I use it to get information about things I didn't know existed, it helped with my University course so much that I rarely visited the campus library, and to keep in contact with friends.

3 of my closest friends are currently located physically far away. Kim is in Maine - USA, Rich is in Wellington - New Zealand, and Sunni is in Singapore. Without the Internet (and the Web that helped to push its growth) it is (arguably) very possible that I wouldn't have seen or heard from these close friends for a very long time. Phone calls cost a lot of money, and are usually only made between close family. Even texts to foreign mobiles are sometimes upward of 20p each making the quick funny thought I had turn into "do I have enough credit to send that?", usually meaning I don't send. However this morning I had a text banter with Sunni for very little money, I have had voice and video chats with Kim and Rich for free, all thanks to the Internet, Skype and MSN Messenger. Even thought my friends are far away, something as simple as a text, or seeing them on my monitor, makes it seam like they are in the next street.

So this is my little thanks to Sir Tim Berners-Lee and to all the people who have developed the internet core, the web service, and all the other applications that use the internet over the past 15 years and more. Thank you! :)

Until next time